With a single click on a photo, new search engine netBAT finds and presents various types of information from different sources and brings it directly to a user's screen.

Brand Affinity Technologies, a startup in the advertising and online search
businesses, has come up with a bold new type of Web search application
that approaches things quite differently from the conventional
list-of-links method.
In addition, BAT announced Oct. 14 that it has established an open
developer platform for the new search technology and a developer
network to promote the use of the beta-level app throughout the Web.

BAT, whose founders Chad Steelberg and Ryan Steelberg are Google alumni, has launched netBAT,
a creative new way to search and aggregate content on the Web. NetBAT
automatically finds and presents various types of information from different sources
and brings it directly to a user's screen.

To use the free service, all the user needs to do is click on a photo anywhere on a Website that uses netBAT. netBAT
is designed to keep users on Websites longer by bringing a continuous
stream of new information; all the information delivered by netBAT is
free of charge to the user.
For example, when browsing the Web and coming across a photo of New
York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte on a netBAT-powered page, a user can
simply click on the photo to bring up a menu of content choices that
appear as link buttons at the bottom of the photo.
These can include links to a YouTube video of Pettitte in action,
quotes from Pettitte on various topics, a list of the pitcher's most
recent Twitter updates, and a Google search, among other channels. One
choice even turns the picture into an interactive jigsaw puzzle, for
those who enjoy such features.
Information comes right into the picture
Each link brings up a page of information superimposed on a clear
background over the photo, so the user doesn't have to leave the page.
Thus, the user gets much more information about the person in the photo
than just the image and caption.
For starters, netBAT is being used only in the context of celebrities,
BAT Vice President of Product Management Russell Ketchum told
eWEEK, but the concept certainly is not relegated to entertainment by
any means.
"For users, netBAT is great, because they're now able to tap into not
just content that the publisher has provided, but now they can liberate
content [from other sources] and bring it to bear where it's most
relevant," Ketchum said.
"There's lot of stuff we can do with netBAT, and from the beginning, we
envisioned having an open developer network," Ketchum said. "We're
actually bringing that to market with this beta. Developers are going
to start having access, and making apps of their own, and we'll
syndicate through netBAT."
For example, applications eventually could be written using the netBAT
engine for topics such as political concepts, scientific research,
retail shopping or health care. At the moment, however, BAT is
providing one anchor piece of content about a celebrity (athlete,
celebrity, team, musician, etc.). Everything else will have to be added by the developer.
"We recommend that developers create contextually relevant games,
informational apps, mashups, you name it, that leverage the content
featured," a company FAQ says. "As such, the netBAT API provides data
and background information on over 38,000 celebrities to populate your
apps."
The netBAT developer network is part of the netBAT Partner Portal, which is used by BAT publishing partners
to monitor and assess the performance of netBAT on their Websites,
Ketchum said. A new section of that portal will provide all the
developer tools--including a SDK (software development kit)--needed
to install and use netBAT on a Website, Ketchum said.
How to make money using netBAT
How can developers make money by distributing their application through netBAT?
"It starts by the developer uploading the app to us. We go through a
process for quality control. Then it gets approved into the system,"
Ketchum said.
"There are several ways for developers to make revenue, but even if the
intention is not revenue, there are distribution opportunities,"
Ketchum said. "We now have access to about 44 million users across
leading news, sports and lifestyle sites [though previous licensing].
So one of the novel ways to use netBAT as a revenue play is that we
have a function integrated with the iTunes App Store, for example.
"If your app is an e-commerce app, money generated from your app is
yours alone," Ketchum said. "If you have a paid version of your app
available on iTunes, you can use netBAT to drive users to download your
app using netBAT's integration with the iTunes App Store. You also can
run ads inside your app."
BAT's original business is creating, storing and licensing
celebrity-focused generic content [mostly in video and images] that can
be used by smaller businesses for advertising and public relations
purposes in various media--including television, print and, of
course, the Web.
Because small and midsize businesses most often do not have the
budget bandwidth to afford testimonials from well-known athletes,
musicians and movie/TV stars, they can use BAT to find a celebrity and
content that fits their marketing or fund-raising scheme and license
the appropriate video, photos and audio that BAT already owns.
For example, if a business is interested in an anti-smoking campaign to
fit into its overall marketing plan, the business can find a celebrity
message to that effect in BAT's archives and license it for far less
cost than having to deal with the celebrity and his or her agent on an
individual basis.
Last August, BAT raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Miramar
Venture Partners, with existing investors Newport Coast Investments,
RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, CGI Opportunity Fund II, and
Ad Pepper Media International also participating. This brings the
company's total funding to $26 million.

Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz